Wow. 1 in 4 Americans Don't Know that the Earth Revolves Around the Sun.

But almost all Americans say 'hooray!' to science. Go figure.

Americans received "barely a passing grade" from the National Science Foundation • The Huffington Post

A new poll conducted by the National Science Foundation must come as an awful shock to that agency. The results shows a terrible lack of knowledge of even the most basic scientific facts easily available to an inquiring mind. This includes the one about the earth revolving around the sun. 26% of your fellow citizens were unaware that was the case.

The survey included over 2,200 respondents, and likewise revealed that nearly half of Americans didn't know that humans evolved from earlier animal species. Nonetheless, a substantial majority of folks interviewed remained excited about developments in science and medicine, and about a third said more funding for them should be provided.

(I imagine they were not excited about being questioned on those developments at a future date.)

The survey, conducted every two years, will be submitted to the President and lawmakers in an official NSF report.

Why on earth would our stealth down voter, vote this remark down? Three remarks and all three voted down, why? Too bad someone doesn't have the courage of their convictions to actually debate their position.

Which side denies evolution in favor or religious stories from a 2000 year old book?

Which side tells us that a woman cant get pregnant from a "legitimate" rape?

Which side wanted to scrap the process of peer review at the National Science Foundation?

It far more likely that 1 in 4 Americans are just extremely stupid regardless of political views. However, if you want to bring whining about liberals into the conversation, you likely wont do very well in that debate, as I have already shown.

Absolutely flabbergasted that anyone in America doesn't know that the earth revolves around the sun! Can this really be true? If so, what on earth does that say about our educational system? How could anyone get out of even the poorest high school or even middle school and NOT know this basic fact?

It's not a fact! In fact the Sun and Earth revolve around each other. Just that the Earth's orbit is much larger than the Sun's orbit because of the difference in mass. Viewed from outside the solar system, neither revolves around the other, they just have curvy paths through space with the Earth curving much more than the Sun. Interesting isn't it?

@Russell797 Speechless, completely speechless at this post. You rewrite climate change and now you rewrite a very basic fact, yes fact, that the earth does indeed revolve around the sun. In orbit, no matter where the sun floats too, if in fact it does, those circles remain, around the sun.

Are we sure the sun isn't moving through space on a straight line path as the planets revolve around it...otherwise wouldn't that have caused Polaris (North Star) to be off position in time...especially over the centuries from now back to when it first began being used in navigation?

@BravoJuliet Great insight there. The north star is only temporarily aligned with geographic north. With time the Earth's wobble (precession of the equinoxes) describes a circle in the northern sky. The circle takes about 26,000 years to complete. In about 14,000 thousand years the star Vega will be the north star.

You are speaking of proper motion, which is a much slower shift in where the stars a positioned on the sky.

But seriously, I think I first would have made sure that the people knew the meaning of the words 'revolve' and 'evolve'. A sampling of only 2,200? Other details about the poll?Just from the numbers alone, I would have serious doubts to its credibility. It sounds like one of Jay Leno's old 'Jaywalking surveys'.

@Frosty45 I believe you. It's not so much that as from experience and a graduate statistics course I once too, 2,200 isn't a large enough sample to take. That would account for all the times that polls 'have been wrong'. I would want to have at least 5 times that number of people scattered all over the USA and from different age groups not just the 'social website' generation.

@GedankPol They think they are careful to put together a cross section of people that demographically fit the profile of the group they are representing. The last Presidential Election they screwed up royally because most polls over represented Republicans and older voters because those groups voted in higher # then other groups. Problem was in 2012 that wasn't true & the most accurate predictions came from the blogger who uses a very different model.

@BravoJuliet Yes, but as viewed from outside the solar system the Earth would not be seen to travel around a stationary Sun. The Earth would be seen to alternately surge ahead of the Sun and then fall behind, or in other cases move from left to right and then right to left of the Sun in it's motion through space. Astronomers are using this observation as a means of detecting extra solar planets around other stars.

@Poltal To answer my own question I believe the handout takers are of genius level intelligence since they get other people to cater to their every need as well as pay for their existence and the best part is they never have to payback anyone for the goods and services they are given. It's quite a racket they've got going there.

Even major religions now recognize that this is not a geocentric universe, so before anybody makes the case that it's all them ignant religious folks, consider yourselves preempted. Personally, I wonder how many polled were idiot college students answering like idiots just for kicks. As for eveolution, saying someone didn't know about evolution is again insulting to those of faith. Not knowing is not the same as not believing.

You are right, I didn't see that coming at all. I guess some will pounce on anything to denigrate those with religious convictions. See the remark by EarnestPayne - just typical religion bashing by the very uninformed left. The percentage of Christians who believe his propaganda stance are less than those who handle snakes. Yet the left lumps all religious into the least common denominator to do what? And why?

@Tralee it's not the left that puts bronze age war god worpship into text books and calls it a legitimate explanation of cosmology and the origin of the universe and our species. It's not the left that said, don't bother worrying about where everything came from which in turn leads to the discoveries that are driving our society to push into new technologies and breaking the boundaries of our current understanding of the way things work. Everything just popped into existence because some guy living in the clouds wanted it to. That's all you need to know until the day you die. Thinking about it is actually punishable by eternal damnation because we all know the Fruit of Knowledge is what was forbidden anyway. It's not the left waging a war on science and knowledge. And it's most likely not the left that comprises over 90% of that 25% of losers who don't even understand something they should have learned just watching a cartoon or movie at some point, let alone in school.

@TRex84 i can't say that all of the morons who don't understand the sun revolves around the sun are right leaning republican voters. Hell, if I were to make a guess I'd bet half of them don't even know the name of the speaker of the house let alone bother voting. but if we're talking about those who failed and factor in their political leanings as well for comparison i'd have to say it's undecideds at number 1 as they have no idea about anything politically, conservatives at number 2 because lets face it, they hate science apparently. then democrats because lets face it, every party has a few fat chicks.

"As for eveolution, saying someone didn't know about evolution is again insulting to those of faith. Not knowing is not the same as not believing."

As is usual with the history of religion, every time science manages to 'insult those of faith', those of faith eventually accept reality. The sun used to be the center of controversy for that very same reason.

Lets see, we have Liberal politicians who NEVER address the core root cause of our failing grades in schools. The broken home! Kids being raised with no father or mother at home, no discipline, told they are victims most of their lives & it is not their fault for problems when they grow up.

What this article fails to mention is that this survey (consisting of 10 questions) was performed in China, Russia, Europe, India, Japan Malaysia and South Korea. The US received the highest score on all questions except for #7 & #10 (which regards human evolution/big bang theory, which half of the US do not believe due to religious reasons).

Here are the questions. Answer key follows:

1) The center of the Earth is very hot.

2) The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move.

3)Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth?

4) All radioactivity is manmade.

5) Electrons are smaller than atoms.

6) Lasers work by focusing sound waves.

7) The universe began with a huge explosion.

8) It is the father’s gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl.

9) Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria.

10) Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.

Answers:1)True2)True3)Earth around the Sun4)False5)True6)False7)True8)True9)False10)True

@Frosty45 Plate tectonics doesn't conflict with the Big Bang theory. And if it was written as "Did the universe expand from a single point (aka Singularity Alpha) rather than "The universe began with a huge explosion", then I believe the vast majority would have said true.(Science and Christianity both acknowledges that the universe began at a single point, however many scientists do not regard this expansion as being an "explosion").

They are also turning out successful college students. My Son's HS circle is before their 10th anniversary has 3 engineers, 1 PhD in Geology, 1 PhD in economic history from Oxford1 MS in Biology (who understands evolution as do the others) and a BN. All but 1 are employed. That one is trying to decide if he wants to give u women and become a Priest.

Galileo was jailed for such sacrilegious talk. Obviously the earth is the center of the universe and all things revolve around it. I mean if we aren't going to let religion triumph over science, we are going to have to agree with such absurd notions as global warming, and evolution too.For the slow , that was sarcasm